On the national scene, the Obama-Biden ticket won the Presidential election. Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States and the first African-American to do so.
The Democrats have also taken control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. So, these next few years will all be on the shoulders of the Democrats. If they falter, then in the next election, the power to control will swing in the Republican favor. Although, if the Republicans go with Sarah Palin as their ticket, then we might get an Independent as our next president. How cool would that be?
As of November 6, 2008 10:00am, 99% of the votes have been tabulated for California and 100% for San Francisco:
California Propositions
Prop 1A – Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act passed with 5,072,778 (52%) YES votes to 4,661,366 (48%) NO votes. What do you say? Monorail! What do you need? Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!
Prop 2 – Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act. passed with 6,259,522 (63%) YES votes to 3,656,765 (37%) NO votes. Young cows, pregnant pigs and egg-laying hens everywhere will now receive enough room to turn around before hitting the slaughter house.
Prop 3 – Children’s Hospital Bond Act of 2008 passed with 5,314,603 (55%) YES votes to the 4,383,084 (45%) NO votes. Those six qualified hospitals can rest easy as the $90 million check is in the mail.
Prop 4 – Child and Teen Safety and Stop Predators Act: Sarah’s Law failed with 5,157,390 (52%) NO votes to 4,761,793 (48%) YES votes. Minors are free to get abortions without notifying their parents or legal guardians.
Prop 5 – Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act of 2008 failed with 5,843,962 (60%) NO votes to 3,910,125 (40%) YES votes. People will need to think twice before doing drugs now that there isn’t a fast track through the jail system for them.
Prop 6 – Safe Neighborhoods Act: Stop Gang, Gun, and Street Crime. failed with 6,581,530 (69%) NO votes to 2,927,597 (31%) YES votes. Criminals will be happy to know that they will not receive longer sentences due to their gang-affiliation, so that will be just one life sentence for murder instead of two.
Prop 7 – The Solar and Clean Energy Act of 2008 failed with 6,307,979 (65%) NO votes to 3,419,193 (35%) YES votes. Utilities will no longer have to live in fear of higher requirements for converting to clean energy.
Prop 8 – California Marriage Protection Act passed with 5,387,939 (52%) YES votes to 4,883,460 (48%) NO votes. The American people has found a new group to stamp down now that the African-American contingent has risen above the fray.
Prop 9 – Victims’ Bill of Rights Act of 2008: Marsy’s Law passed with 5,100,970 (53%) YES votes to 4,438,988 (47%) NO votes. Victims will receive the peace of mind they deserve.
Prop 10 – The California Renewable Energy and Clean Alternative Fuel Act failed with 5,763,536 (60%) NO votes to 3,889,794 (40%) YES votes. The car industry will need to find another source of investment money to fund their research, production, marketing and sale of clean energy vehicles.
Prop 11 – Voters FIRST Act remains in a virtual tie with 4,666,457 (51%) YES votes to 4,567,689 (49%) NO votes.
Prop 12 – Veterans’ Bond Act of 2008 passed with 5,998,849 (63%) YES votes to the 3,452,835 (37%) NO votes. California takes care of its own.
San Francisco Propositions
Prop A – San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center Earthquake Safety Bonds, 2008 passed with 186,903 (84%) YES votes to 34,837 (16%) NO votes. The structurally sound building made of glass will now be built to house the most traumatized patients in and around the City.
Prob B – Establishing Affordable Housing Fund failed with 108,392 (51%) NO votes to the 106,076 (49%) YES votes. The competition for housing in San Francisco is so strong, it even carries over to the ballot booths.
Prop C – Prohibiting City Employees from Serving on Charter Boards and Commissions failed with 127,390 (63%) NO votes to the 74,201 (37%) YES votes. City employees can now go back to taking kickbacks for their votes on commissions and boards.
Prop D – Financing Pier 70 Waterfront District Development Plan upon Board of Supervisors’ Approval passed with 138,669 (68%) YES votes to 66,534 (32%) NO votes. Pier 70 will now receive the necessary funding to move forward on redevelopment plans.
Prop E – Changing the Number of Signatures Required to Recall City Officials passed with 121,605 (61%) YES votes to the 79,165 (39%) NO votes. City supervisors will now have to piss off even more people than before to get recalled.
Prop F – Holding All Scheduled City Elections Only in Even-Numbered Years failed with 108,623 (55%) NO votes to 89,532 (45%) YES votes. An election will continue to be held on odd-numbered years to weed out the lazy residents.
Prop G – Allowing Retirement System Credit for Unpaid Parental Leave passed with 126,400 (63%) YES votes to the 73,205 (37%) NO votes. A select few will now be jump to the next pension bracket by purchasing credit for parental leave. Just another proposition to stick it to single people.
Prop H – Setting Clean Energy Deadlines; Studying Options for Providing Energy; Changing Revenue Bond Authority to Pay for Public Utility Facilities failed with 125,639 (59%) NO votes to 86,859 (41%) YES votes. City supervisors will have to find another way to make a power grab now voters see them for who they really are.
Prop I – Creating the Office of an Independent Rate Payer Advocate failed with 126,292 (64%) NO votes to 69,979 (36%) YES votes. The PUC will continue to screw the taxpayers with high rates to pay for infrastructure projects.
Prop J – Creating a Historic Preservation Commission passed with 114,935 (57%) YES votes to the 88,231 (43%) NO votes. The old will remain old while the new will just have to try and fake being old.
Prop K – Changing the Enforcement of Laws Related to Prostitution and Sex Workers failed with 121,815 (58%) NO votes to 89,833 (42%) YES votes. Not enough single and disgruntled people in relationships in the City to back this initiative.
Prop L – Funding the Community Justice Center failed with 112,580 (59%) NO votes to 78,756 (41%) YES votes. Those non-violent criminals will continue to plead their case side-by-side with the violent criminals where they belong.
Prop N – Changing Real Property Transfer Tax Rates passed with 138,706 (69%) YES votes to 62,325 (31%) NO votes. Flipping property has just become a little less profitable.
Prop O – Replacing the Emergency Response Fee with an Access Line Tax and Revising the Telephone Users Tax passed with 127,248 (66%) YES votes to 64,734 (34%) NO votes. Still paying the tax; except now, the funds collected will not have to be used to pay for the 911 service.
Prop P – Changing the Composition of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority Board failed with 129,084 (68%) NO votes to 60,013 (32%) YES votes. The Transportation Authority Board will not have to answer to the Mayor as much now.
Prop Q – Modifying the Payroll Expense Tax passed with 143,669 (74%) YES votes to 50,128 (26%) NO votes. The City doing its part by squeezing out every last drop of tax revenue by any means necessary.
Prop R – Renaming the Oceanside Water Treatment Plant failed with 143,087 (69%) NO votes to 63,879 (31%) YES votes. The water treatment plant’s good name will remain, not to be sullied by the like of Dubya.
Prop S – Policy Regarding Budget Set-Asides and Identification of Replacement Funds passed with 99,570 (53%) YES votes to 86,537 (47%) NO votes. During this economic crisis, we can no longer freely throw credit around thinking we can make up the difference at a later date.
Prop T – Free and Low-Cost Substance Abuse Treatment Programs passed with 127,197 (63%) YES votes to 75,187 (37%) NO votes. Have a present or future drug problem? Don’t worry, the City will be here to help you kick the habit so you can switch to a different drug.
Prop U – Policy Against Funding the Deployment of Armed Forces in Iraq passed with 120,558 (60%) YES votes to the 81,134 (40%) NO votes. Yes, lets just equip our soldiers with sticks and stones to fight the terrorists. Good going, San Francisco.
Prop V – Policy Against Terminating Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) Programs in Public High Schools passed with 107,846 (53%) YES votes to 94,882 (47%) NO votes. Future generations of high schoolers will now have the opportunity to join the military propoganda program where they will eventually wind up in service using the sticks and stones provided by San Francisco as their only means of offense.
Closing commentary
Close to 200,000 San Franciscans voted this fall which is more than double the amount that voted in the summer elections. Getting involved with the voting process is a great sign. Although, San Francisco has a population of 750k, lets throw out 150k as illegals and children. That still leaves 500k eligible voters. 300k of which sat on their hands and did nothing.
State wide, 8 million voted as opposed to the summer when only a paltry 3 million voted. Where did these 5 million voters come from?
Prediction Results
As of this moment, I correctly predicted the outcome of 18 of the 34 propositions. 1 remains undecided. My actual votes matched 15 of the winning decision. So my mindset is slightly below the average Californian.